


getting away with it

by Wildehack (tyleet)



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-02 08:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19195105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyleet/pseuds/Wildehack
Summary: Peter Nureyev is pretty certain he will never see Juno Steel again after he wakes up to the sound of a hotel door clicking shut.





	getting away with it

**Author's Note:**

> windmillcrusader asked for my peter/juno thoughts. :)

Peter Nureyev is pretty certain he will never see Juno Steel again, after he wakes up to the sound of a hotel door clicking shut.  
  
For one thing, Peter has no intention of ever returning to Mars.   
  
For another, Peter knows how to take no for an answer. Juno has made himself perfectly clear, and Peter has never been the kind of man to keep inserting himself into a lady’s life when he’s not wanted. 

It’s easy for Peter to become the kind of man who doesn’t think about Juno Steel at all. He becomes new men all the time. Sure, that means Duke Rose and Rex Glass are retired for the forseeable future, and unexpectedly also Perseus Shah, since he has no interest in living the life of a private detective, but Angel Suresh has never been to Mars, and has certainly never met a private detective.   
  
Peter stays in the Angel Suresh identity for about six months, and doesn’t think about Hyperion City or ancient Martians or Juno’s calloused hands or soft mouth or black, bright gaze even once. Unless you count the dreams, which Peter never does.  
  
This lasts until Angel Suresh takes a job extracting millions of credits from a mine-owner on Telos, and a police officer saves his life.   
  
It’s very dramatic, and entirely unexpected–he’s visiting the sapphire mine on the mark’s arm, accompanied by the dogged officer attempting to investigate the series of murders that have taken place in and around the mine over the last year. Peter is doing his best to ignore the officer and flatter the mark when he steps out onto a platform overlooking the pit. As soon as he does, the platform he’s standing on starts to swing loose, and Peter sees with a sharp thrill that the bolts have been sabotaged.   
  
It’s possible that Peter could have saved himself by leaping back to safety, but there’s every chance that he would have blown his cover and knocked the mark over the side while was at it. Or it’s possible that he would have missed, and become yet another thief who died by falling.   
  
Instead, the officer lunges for him, putting herself at incredible risk, and physically hauls him back to safety, the platform falling away under his feet. Peter stares up at her, shocked and grateful, and it’s like he really sees her for the first time: she’s taller than he is, muscular, square-jawed, with a sleek ponytail of dyed-gold hair that hits the small of her back. She’s beautiful, and there’s no way he could possibly know who she is, but it still feels like he recognizes her.  
  
“What,” Peter says, panting a little, “Did you say your name was, officer?”   
  
“Agent Steel,” she says, like he somehow knew she would.   
  
*  
  
He can’t seduce Diamond Steel into bed, but eventually he seduces her into a bottle of very fine whiskey at a local watering hole, at which point he asks her if she’s ever been married.   
  
“Oh,” she says, tipsy and pink-cheeked in a way that he thinks Juno must have liked, “For about five minutes.” 

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Peter murmurs, and tops off her glass.   
  
“Not really,” she says, with an elaborate little shrug of her shoulders that tells him she’s lying. “I kept the name, he kept the whole damn planet in the divorce. Sometimes people just don’t want to be happy, you know?”   
  
“I know,” Peter says, and it comes out too soft.   
  
“Well,” Diamond says, stirring her drink, “Who broke your heart, anyway?”    
  
Peter is quiet for a while before he answers her. “You know,” he says. “That’s an excellent question, Agent Steel.”   
  
“Oh, I’m full of those,” she says. And then, still pink with liquor, she handcuffs him to the chair, the movement so smooth Peter almost misses it. Her voice goes dark, abruptly sober. “For example-–what exactly are you doing on Telos, Mr. Rose?”   
  
Peter stares down at his hand, and then up at Diamond, unable to keep back the broad smile taking over his face. “Why, Agent Steel. I see what he liked about _you._ ”   
  
She blinks at him. “What?”   
  
“Beautiful, brave, devious,” he counts off on his fingers. “Good with your hands. I’d say our dear detective has a type.”  
  
“I–-what are you-–are you talking about  _Juno_ ,” she asks, voice sharpening, but by that point he’s picked the lock, and the ensuing struggle for the phaser means he isn’t obliged to answer her.   
  
He gets away, of course. He was always going to.   
  
But now Angel Suresh has heard the name  _Juno Steel_ , and Peter’s escape isn’t an escape anymore.

“You won’t get away with this!” Diamond yells after him.   
  
It occurs to Peter for the first time that he actually might not. 


End file.
